Consider some of the people who are enslaved today through no fault of their own\u2014children sold into the sex trade and immigrants sold into forced labour. That\u2019s not the kind of slavery Paul is talking about when he writes, \u2018You become the slave of whatever you choose to obey.\u2019<\/i> When it comes to sin, the Bible draws a line in the sand and tells us not to cross it. Why? Because when you cross it once, it\u2019s easier to cross it again. <\/p>\n
Whether your \u2018drug of choice\u2019 is alcohol, illegal or prescription drugs, pornography, gambling, or overeating, you start out believing you\u2019re the master and end up realising you\u2019re the slave. One of the biggest lies we tell ourselves is, \u2018I can stop whenever I want to.\u2019 The Prodigal Son was forgiven and restored, but he still lost his inheritance. <\/p>\n
Spiritually,<\/i> you can lose your confidence before God. <\/p>\n
Personally,<\/i> you can lose your sense of self-worth. <\/p>\n
Publicly,<\/i> you can lose respect and influence with others. <\/p>\n
And if you\u2019re not careful, even \u2018good\u2019 things can hurt you. A strong work ethic can lead to neglecting your family and losing your marriage. Vegging out in front of the TV can stunt your spiritual growth. Even too much caution and thoughtfulness\u2014normally good qualities\u2014can prevent you from stepping out in faith and fulfilling your God-given potential. When God says no,<\/i> He is not being a killjoy and trying to make your life difficult; He is protecting you! If something has the potential to enslave you, don\u2019t do it. And if you\u2019re already hooked, turn to God and He will set you free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Consider some of the people who are enslaved today through no fault of their own\u2014children sold into the sex trade and immigrants sold into forced labour. That\u2019s not the kind of slavery Paul is talking about when he writes, \u2018You become the slave of whatever you choose to obey.\u2019 When it comes to sin, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}